Hi folks. Can anyone please offer any advice on these mixes? I had them rejected because they don’t meet the samples/mixing/mastering/recording requirments. I would be glad of any advice you can offer. Cheers.
https://soundcloud.com/gavin-jack-2/get-motivated
https://soundcloud.com/gavin-jack-2/memories
My advice to you is to get better sample libraries, work more on arrangement. Also your mixing is not good at all, I suggest you should hire someone who knows who to mix.
I hope this was helpful to you.
Thanks for the info. can you please elaborate on the problems whith my mix?
First track: Levels between instruments are not well balanced. Kick has some emphasized frequency about 80Hz, snare is quite in the background and muddy. Piano sounds like a midi, try to humanize it. Strings are bleary. The whole song has emphasized low mid and high frequency. If you replace drums, strings and piano that’s like 30% better. But, this is only my opinion.
I hope other authors will contribute their opinions about tracks.
Regards
It sounds good to me…
Hi GavinJack - The songs are interesting and have potential. However I agree with RainyAudio in that the samples and mix are lacking. All the songs are low in overall loudness and out of frequency balance (mids are over-emphasized). A few specifics on the mixes:
Get Motivated/Memories: No stereo separation (sounds mono). Very dry and lacking reverb “life.” Flat and no depth. Drums are out of balance with the rest.
Power Trip: Better stereo mix and balance across the instruments, however cymbals are loud and harsh. Strings need more punch and are a bit dry (more reverb needed).
Slow Piano: No stereo separation. Low piano is very muddy while there are harsh high frequency coming from piano parts.
You will find that “Balance” is the key to good mixes. I suggest that you check out some instructional videos to help with this. A good start might be to check out the helpful videos from http://therecordingrevolution.com/. Hope this helps and good luck on the journey.
Hi @GavinJack, just adding my 2 cents here 
A) I would not say those rejects seem purely mix related. Some of your tracks (Memories/Slow Piano) seem to lack variety in the arrangement etc.
B) Many of your instruments (like the guitar in Memories) sound rather dull, mono, and low quality. If you make some adjustments to them (like those drums in Get Motivated) then don`t. Its true that instruments have to sit in the mix, but first of all, they have to sound great by themselves. You will never EVER get a great track by summing sub-par instruments.
So, if you feel lacking in the mix department, start by getting each instrument sound great in isolation. Use good libraries, and don`t ruin their sound with plugins. Get the midi adjustments done, so you have musical and meaningful instrument part. Start summing those good parts together and balance JUST the volume, trying to get a nice start. Only then, if you feel like your parts clash in unpleasant way, use some EQ, panning, etc. to solve those, and get things to sit in the mix, though, frankly, I try to close that “does it sit well or not” question very early in the arrangement stage, when auditioning and choosing which VSTi I use here.
Understand you well, hate those rejects myself… Wish you luck next time around!
Hi Guys. Thanks for taking the time to listen and for all the advice. I realy apprciate it, and you have been a great help. I’ve been using a Roland fa-06 patches for alot of the piano/drum/synth sounds. Would you say that’s not good enough? or should I be able to use sounds from the roland? I will get some vsti plugs in future but it’s going to be annoying if I can’t use sounds from the roland. I bought it just to do stock music. I’ve had some acoustic guiter stuff accepted by audiojungle and made a few sales but all the stuff I’ve used the roland for have beed hard rejected. cost me £650…aaarrrggh. Thanks to you guys though…I will take more time over my mixes and think more about what I’m doing. Here is my latest effort that I have not submitted yet. Could you offer any advice before I give it a try?
Hi again, this one sounds way better, though the song itself is a bit repetitive. As for Roland - depends how you hook it to your soundcard. On previous tracks, I would never guess you use a workstation, cause they sound overly polished, up to sterile sometimes, but pretty balanced and commercial. So I guess you just ruin that sound somehow, or by the way you hook and transfer Roland output into your DAW (try if it works as a Vsti plugin itself, some workstations do) or by wrong processing you apply.
Wish you luck with it!
Thanks again. I just hook it up through the sterio outs through a focusrite 18i20 interface like it sais in the manual. maybe the comp/eq/limiter I use on the master bus ruins the sound somehow…will keep trying though…Cheers
I bet something in your analog connection messes up your sound and stereo image. Why don`t you connect digitally? It looks a fairly recent piece of hardware, there must be some digital connection, or even a USB mode to work with.
Yeh there is the option to connect via usb straight into the computer and use the roland as an interface…going to try
Regarding Roland sounds, 650 is not a big number when you take into account that good quality Midi keyboards that don’t have any sounds attached to them can cost 200-300 at least. So if you try to “get it all” from 650 synth, it will not sound professional. I’d recommend investing in a good quality VST collection that gets you started on most sounds you are going to need. One of the best options currently is Native Instruments Komplete. It is massive, high quality and best bang for the buck. In general I don’t believe you can do competitive stock music with only hardware synth. You will need to build virtual instrument collection and keep it up to date.
Thanks for the advice. I just need good strings/drums/bass sounds at the moment. Could you recomend a good virtual drum kit? and how are the drum sounds in native komplete? cheers.
https://www.xlnaudio.com/addictivedrums is good option. Some people like ToonTrack’s Superior Drummer as well. Haven’t dabbled with others, but of course with Native Instruments Komplete you will get Battery VST and many many drumkits for that as well, which will give you quite solid options too.
In general, Komplete will give you everything you want with good basic quality. After dabbling around with Komplete you might want to purchase distinct libraries, but it should bring you very good baseline, especially in comparison to your current Roland based situation.
I agree with Driving.
I would sell the Roland as soon as possible and get started with VST instruments instead. If you’re serious about this I would get Kontakt right away. Komplete is very good and includes Kontakt and a ton of good instruments. Of course it’s a chunk of $$$ (although price per instrument is VERY cheap compared to other options). You also get some of the leading effect plug-ins and synths.
All the best instruments released are for Kontakt these days, aside from a few exceptions.
Thanks for the advice. I can still use the roland as a controller. So, I might buy Komplete first, then sell the roland later and get a better controller keyboard. I’ve been meaning to get one with weighted keys anyway. The roland keybed isn’t the best…I see komplete has just brought out some new updates
You sir, are a hero. The roland sounds way better with the usb connection. Thanks again 
Cool! Glad I could help. Just another 2 cents on the “what to get” issue. You might have heard about the Composer Cloud: http://www.soundsonline.com/composercloud Its 30 bucks a month, and you can cancel anytime. Great pool of sounds for a beginner to dive in and try things. What is most important, that EastWest stuff has insane recording quality, so at least what you can do, is to go through stuff, and adjust your ear by them.
I think, that the drums sounds very slowly, it sounds like drums from old music!
But I like your arrangement)
Good luck)